Weeks ago when I went to see Silver Linings Playbook, (which originally may or may not have had something to do with Bradley Cooper), I was moved by the simple yet profound message that I took away from the film: we all need a strategy, which (give or take) leads to our silver lining.

Sounds simple, right? Come up with a plan---and your future becomes optimistic. Develop an action item for each area in your life---and you no longer are faced with unfortunate situations. So, with a successful strategy in place, your life should be full, content, and happy. Your silver lining is in tact.

Imagine sitting down with a pen and a sheet of paper to make out your life's plan. I can't tell you how many half written in journals I have lying around to do just this. I buy them in different sizes and colors, some lined…some unlined, some with inspirational quotes on the cover and some plain, some with perforated edges and some with messy ones. Point being, clearly the type of journal doesn't matter. What matters is me taking the time to figure…it…out (my strategy that is, so I can have my silver lining of course.)

We all try to carve out personal "thinking and planning" time but life just gets in the way (the dog gets sick, or the kids, or your laundry calls your name, or you get caught up paying the bills, or making dinner, or your eyes get heavy in bed, or...zzzzzz…)

The plan. For some it might be an entire life plan. Every part of your life: relationships, family, friends, profession, religion, social life, and on and on and on. People with these "plans" might be really good at having life figured out. What they might not be good at is when one of these areas falls a part. Can their ultimate silver lining still be had?

For others, the plan just focuses on one area. You might have one part of your life really well strategized…but all other areas go by the wayside. So is this to say your silver lining is really just making one area in your life hopeful? Can you have a partial-life-silver-lining? It's not a question for me to answer…it's just a question for me to ask.

I'm personally guilty of planning details out for occasions, and activities, and events, and everything else in between in my life; every…single…day. I make a plan of action at work, at home, with my children and their activities, and with simple every day happenings. The notebooks, and phone notes, and sticky notes are what contain my plan, my strategy. For me, it's a strategy of survival on a daily basis; it's a daily silver lining. When everything falls into place, well then that's a good day with a good outcome! When everything falls a part, well then, I suppose tomorrow's a new day.

I don't know what the answer is for your plan, for your happiness, but what I do know is this: you can't be a part of anyone else's plan OR optimistic future without having an ounce of an idea of where you want to be, how you want to get there, and what that (whatever it may be) looks like.

A Strategy. A Silver Lining. Or heck, if nothing else…a cool, new journal.